Representation of South Asians in EDM: Jai Wolf - Electronic Producer & Artist

Bengalis of New York

Season 5 - Episode 11: I feel like in my upbringing, alongside having to study really hard in school, I feel like there's this sort of nurturing care put into having some sort of artistic ability. Be it painting or singing or playing an instrument. For me, it was playing the violin. I grew up playing the violin since I was five years old. My mom would play the harmonium, and I have an uncle who plays guitar. I was in orchestra my whole life and I used to play the violin doing solo repertoire stuff as well as group orchestra stuff for a really long time. But when I got into high school, I found it to be quite unsatisfying only because I was performing music that was already written hundreds of years ago, which I have great respect for. I have great respect for all the composers and classical musicians, but I wasn't feeling like I was just getting anything out of it at a certain age. It was then that I started writing music. I felt that in school, you would take English classes where you would learn how to read and write. You would read books and write about the books, such as analysis papers, etc, but with music, you only learn how to read and perform. We never learned how to write. I felt like that was an itch that needed to be scratched. It was just something that was in me that I needed to learn.

Listen to the entire conversation with Jai Wolf on the BoNY Podcast.

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